Georgios Iakovidis

Georgios Iakovidis was born in Chidira, Lesvos, in 1853. In 1870 he enrolled at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he studied sculpture with Leonidas Drosis and painting with Nikiforos Lytras. In 1877 he received a state scholarship and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Upon graduating in 1883, he received an award for his painting Creusa. He participated in many international exhibitions and joined several artist groups. In 1888 he founded a painting school for young women, which operated for ten years. He won a gold medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. In the same year he returned to Greece and was appointed the first curator of the newly established National Gallery, a position he held until 1918. He began teaching at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1904 and became director in 1911, serving until his retirement in 1930. In 1914 he received the National Award for Letters and Arts. He was a founding member of the Academy of Athens. Celebrated for his depictions of children, he distinguished himself through clarity and precision of drawing, realism, and harmonious use of color. He died in Athens in 1932. In 2005 the National Gallery in Athens staged a retrospective of his work.